The calculator may have gone, but Alison Deyette is still everywhere, cheerily giving terrible fitting advice while she jokes about ‘the ladies’ and adds five to everything. These videos need to come down.

Worse though, is the guide page – which as well as offering no visual solutions (although given what they show in their videos, probably wouldn’t be up to much), offer gimmicky product ‘quick fixes’ to help women solve their slipping or digging in straps. Anyone who knows good fit knows that these are two red lights for a bad fitting bra, but instead of addressing the root cause exploits the women further by selling them product they don’t need. Marks & Spencer did this a while back with the ‘Flatter Me’ bra – and I think it shows a total disdain for those women who put their trust – and their money – in to these companies.

I did check in with Playtex yesterday, and I will let you know when I hear back – tune in on Twitter or Facebook to keep up to date with the latest. In the meantime, keep fighting, keep spreading the world. What we’re asking for is a revolution – a culture shift in the way mainstream lingerie companies advise and serve their customers. It won’t be easy, but we won’t stop.

22 Responses to Why Playtex need to do more than change their calculator

The most useful thing might simply be for Playtex to tell their customers that sizes exist beyond DD/DDD. Most people in America have no idea that there are any larger sizes. Even if they could just make an F cup it would be a revolution in terms of educating people.

That would indeed be useful – but it would lose them a lot of customers, so I’m not too hopeful that they’ll do that… DDD (a UK E) and G (a UK F) are listed as sizes on their site, but I haven’t really seen bras offered by them in those sizes.

Basically, the would have to revamp their ENTIRE way of doing things, and while I do hope that they do this, I know it won’t be easy to persuade them to do so…

I have a large chest and must wear a bra wiohtut underwires to visit a loved one in prison. Every single one I have tried makes my boobs sag and that is no fun to see in photos. I NEED a real one that works well. On the other hand, wired bras can really be uncomfortable, especially if it breaks and becomes pokey.

There are some great soft cup bras out there that give good support as well as actually being pretty! It’s about finding the right size. I’m wondering if you’re also experiencing wire issues on your underwire if you might not quite have it yet. Happy to help you if you’d like!

The fitting advice needs a drastic overhaul, and those videos are awful! Although they’ve taken down the bra size calculator, the bra fit video still gives the same measuring instructions so they haven’t made much of a change. It’s even worse than most brands’ measuring guides because it adds 5-6 inches rather than 4-5, so it puts me at 36AA! (I actually wear 30E – big difference!) I think I wore a bigger cup size at the age of 12!

The worst thing about their entire approach to bra fitting is that they focus too much on selling a specific product, rather than explaining how a bra is supposed to fit and actually offering the customer the products they need. It’s about cashing in on women’s insecurities and taking advantage of (if not encouraging) the fact that people are so confused about bra sizing. Their bra makeovers don’t do a thing for women’s self-confidence because they have no informative element whatsoever. If anything, Alison Deyette is downright offensive – with derogatory comments about women’s appearance designed to knock down any shred of self-esteem they might have, in order to then be their saviour with some wonder-product. In short, the entire marketing strategy is designed to be disempowering.

Would it be helpful to put together a list of good fitting guides? I am sure that there are a few around, and putting the good information together in one place would help many ladies a great deal. It’s all very well knowing that something doesn’t work, but the road to empowerment is giving people the tools to find out what does work.
The WKD guide springs to mind – they have video guides that show a well fitting bra and point out the things that should be avoided; and also a very informative little list of different (well fitting!) bra sizes on the same girls… which, to my mind, is important. Different shapes, styles and brands of bras are going to fit you differently, to be obsessed with finding ‘the right size’ rather than using it as a starting point only, does a dis-service to yourself.http://www.whatkatiedid.com/src/brasizing.php As I said, I am sure that there are many more good guides, with all different fitting methods – the important bits are how it fits and feels, not the method to get there.

I think it would be, for sure. At the moment I never post about this without a link to the Bravissimo site – which has a number free photo based guide helping you recognise a good fit – but I don’t think it hurts to over-communicate this message. I’ll check out What Katie Did – I like them as a company. Thanks for the suggestion.

I’m totally with you on that being the most important thing – I’ve written quite a lot in the past about how it’s a case of finding the right sizes, not the right size. Unfortunately though without dramatically changing the way fitting is advised, women will keep trusting the numbers and not what their body, eyes and mirror are telling them…